Tommy Davies is chief science officer of , a startup that helps companies produce better fruit with the power of gene mapping.
Innovation: Building on unique research from Dalhousie鈥檚 Faculty of Agriculture, Foodimprover is set to usher in a new age of gene mapping that will help companies improve the taste, shelf life and resilience of our favourite fruits and berries. Tommy Davies is the genomic cartographer behind the venture. The Dal PhD student says that, while gene editing has revolutionized rice, wheat, and corn, rosaceous crops like apples and strawberries have lagged due to the absence of precise gene editing targets. He says to think of gene editing as a vehicle and the targets as a GPS system. Until now, he says, the GPS system for rosaceous crops has been offline.
Foundation: Davies鈥� PhD supervisor is Dr. Sean Myles, a leading researcher at Dalhousie鈥檚 Faculty of Agriculture with a penchant for entrepreneurship. Davies says Dr. Myles continually pushes students to look at their research from every angle. 鈥淗e encourages us to think beyond the science, to the greater implications of our discoveries and their business and policy implications,鈥� he says. The push obviously worked. Better than giving him an 鈥淎,鈥� Dr. Myles has signed on as Davies鈥� co-founder in Foodimprover. To get started, the pair turned to Dal鈥檚 Office of Commercialization and Industry Engagement. 鈥淥CIE was a great early resource for us. They had plenty of wisdom and examples to share that helped聽 us position ourselves early on,鈥� says Davies. They also took Dal鈥檚 where Davies says they put in the hard work to validate their business idea. 鈥淭hey emphasize the importance of doing the thing that no one wants to do鈥攃old calling industry contacts,鈥� he says. But it paid off. 鈥淭hose conversations are where we formulated our market intelligence and our understanding of where we could potentially capture value.鈥�
Inspiration: There is nothing like a blank page to motivate creative thinking. In the case of Dr. Myles鈥� lab, it took the form of a whiteboard chart that prompted students to pitch their ideas for the most valuable crops for the team to explore. With ideas buzzing in their heads the prof and students went for a hike up Nova Scotia鈥檚 Cape Split. While treading the path, they stumbled on a conundrum鈥攖here鈥檚 a lot of gene editing activity, but not a lot of success. Why? Davies says they quickly arrived at a conclusion鈥攖hey don鈥檛 know where to edit. 鈥淲ow, it鈥檚 so wild that these groups are still pouring all this money into gene editing when they have no targets. And we thought, given our expertise and our resources we can build the maps.鈥�
Why It Matters: Beyond the promise of breaking into a multibillion-dollar industry鈥攖hey are talking with a range of key players in the sector鈥擠avies says there is a potential for Foodimprover to make significant contributions to strengthening global food security. He says that dramatic shifts in agricultural environments and new pests resulting from climate change will increase the need for rapid development and adaptation of new crops. 鈥淲e need to be able to accelerate the breeding process or we鈥檙e going to run into a real problem,鈥� he says. 鈥淪o, when something bad comes up, we have the tools to address it, not on the current scale of 30 years, but perhaps on the scale of four, five or six.鈥�
Read more:听Where Ideas Meet Impact: In business to build a better apple (Dal News)
This story appeared in the聽DAL Magazine Fall/Winter 2023聽issue. Flip through the rest of the issue using the links below.